Vanderbilt Health now supports Health Records on iPhone, which brings together hospitals, clinics and the existing Apple Health app to make it easy for patients to see their available medical data from multiple providers whenever they choose.

Using the new Health Records section within the Apple Health app on the iPhone, patients can easily monitor their health record information from Vanderbilt and other participating health systems, including allergies, conditions, immunizations, labs, medications, procedures and vitals. Users can view their medical records simply by updating their iOS software on their iPhone.

When health record data is transferred from Vanderbilt to the Health app, it is encrypted and does not traverse Apple's network. As part of this feature, Apple does not receive, maintain or transmit any protected health information. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with the user's iPhone passcode.

Previously, if patients' medical records were held in multiple locations, this required patients to log into each care provider's website and piece together information manually. Apple worked with the healthcare community to take a consumer-friendly approach and created Health Records based on FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), a standard for transferring electronic medical records.

Now, patients will have medical information from participating institutions organized into one view, covering allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals, and will receive notifications when their data is updated.

Vanderbilt's participation was facilitated in part by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center's recent switch to a new clinical information system called eStar, powered by software from Epic Systems Corp.

"This is an exciting and very innovative opportunity that allows us to leverage all of the work we've done becoming part of the Epic community. Health records on iPhone will allow us to share electronic health record information in exciting new ways," said Trent Rosenbloom, MD, director of Vanderbilt's online patient portal, My Health at Vanderbilt (MHAV).

"Health records on iPhone gives patients one more way to interact with their medical data, including being able to bring together their medical information from multiple healthcare providers into one place. Longer term, we think this will give people more ways to use their health information, such as sharing it with other health systems or taking advantage of mobile apps that use health data to help users take better care of themselves," Rosenbloom said.

According to Rosenbloom, currently there are approximately 19,000 users accessing MHAV with their iPhones.